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Hi. I'm John. I'm 62. I've had tinnitus for a long time - maybe 20 years now but until recently it has been at a very low level. Most of the time I didn't notice and I could go weeks at a time and never think about it. Then earlier his year I started a course of Levothyroxine for an underactive thyroid. I had a couple of months on 25mg a day, then 50mg a day, then up to 100mg. About a week after I started on 100mg I noticed my tinnitus had got a lot worse and I told this to my doctor and we agreed I should go back down to 50mg. Over the course of the next few days it got steadily worse and I decided to stop the medication altogether. To my horror it continued to get worse for a few more days and it reached a point where I was in total despair and thinking very dark thoughts. This was August 15th this year. I was convinced it was the medication that had caused it but my doctor disagreed saying it was just coincidence and that the Levothyroxine was simply replacing what my body should be producing naturally. I can't find Levothyroxine on any list of ototoxic drugs so don't really know now what caused it. I've not been exposed to any loud noises or had any ear infections or anything like that so I'm still thinking it was probably my medication. The first month after that was hell. No sleep, scared, off my food. Just worried sick and feeling very sorry for myself. Slowly I have found that I am starting to cope a little better. Not sure if it's down to habituation or the Tinnitus has reduced in volume - maybe a little of both. I've been playing around with DIY sound therapies so glad to have found this forum as there's lots of good info on this topic here.

Hate to admit it, I’m 59. Like the above, my T years ago was at a low level. It seemed like a good night sleep cured it. I'm kind of in denial, what the hearing test doctor called sensorineural hearing loss, and the ENT saying it's nerve damage due to age, because it seems like I can hear fine.
My Thyroid was abated, so I take synthic-Thyroid medication, daily. Also, I took other medication, which may have attributed to this condition, in my non-professional opinion. I've also heard, around the age of 60, one's hearing can take a hit, thus Tinnitus.
I wish I had an answer. I wish the Medical industry had a magic pill for a cure. I was looking forward to great times in my 60's. I'm not feeling good lately either, feel like I had a relapse. I wish you peace and a path towards better health JohnJ, Welcome. I agree with RHunter, people with T can relate.

I can relate to what you and the others have experienced. I'm 67, and I've also had tinnitus for many years (at least 25), but it was very mild. I've been on Synthroid for many years, too (underactive thyroid). Over three years ago, my doctor prescribed blood pressure medicine for me, and that's when my tinnitus got very bad. As a result, I ended up with severe ringing/hissing tinnitus, and pulsatile tinnitus as well. I also have hearing loss in the affected ear (in my case, the doctor said it is conductive hearing loss).

My theory is that, as we age, we become more sensitive to changes to our system, and in this instance, it may have been a combination of hearing loss, age, and prescription drugs. Whatever it was, the result was the same: tinnitus.

I wish us all a peaceful evening, and hope that there will be some sort of breakthrough in our lifetimes that will lead to a cure.